Trainwreck: Storm Area 51 review—When boredom spread faster than aliens could escape

Trainwreck: Storm Area 51 is all about this: What do you get when you mix internet humor, small-town logistics, FBI panic, and a desert full of dreamers with Naruto headbands?

Apparently, you get one of the most bizarre, chaotic, and entertaining moments of 2019. Trainwreck: Storm Area 51, part of Netflix’s Trainwreck Collection, takes this collective fever dream and turns it into a surprisingly sharp two-part documentary, equal parts hilarious, terrifying, and deeply human.

---

It started with a strange post

The story behind Trainwreck: Storm Area 51 begins the way many 2010s stories do: with a lonely scroll through Facebook and a keyboard half-seriously summoning chaos. Matt Roberts, a guy with a meme page and 40 followers, decided to make a joke event inviting people to storm Area 51 on September 20, 2019. The idea? “They Can’t Stop All Of Us.”

Turns out, the internet is perfectly capable of trying.

Within days, the event gained millions of responses. Trainwreck: Storm Area 51 shows that celebrities joined in, memes exploded, and the absurdity snowballed. All of a sudden, this wasn't just a joke. This was something people were planning for.

Booking hotels. Printing t-shirts. Practicing Naruto runs. Whether they believed in aliens or just needed an excuse to escape the existential boredom of modern life, people were ready.

---

Alien Coachella, civil war, and capitalism

And then it got real. Like, really real.

The documentary Trainwreck: Storm Area 51 shows how Rachel, a sleepy Nevada town with 50 residents, suddenly became the proposed site of a massive festival branded Alienstock. A local woman with a diner and a few rental rooms saw an opportunity and pivoted from panic to promotion. Another event popped up in Las Vegas. Promoters got involved, money started flowing, and the locals and the US military were absolutely not amused at all.

What was supposed to be meme-fueled nonsense began looking like a national security threat. The FBI contacted Matt. Locals freaked out. Lawsuits flew. One town prepared for millions of visitors. Trainwreck: Storm Area 51 captures that escalating hysteria with precision, balancing humor and fear, community and collapse.

---

What makes the storytelling work in Trainwreck: Storm Area 51

Trainwreck: Storm Area 51 could easily have been a surface-level look at “that weird Facebook thing.” But it’s not. It’s snappy, kinetic, and expertly edited. The pacing is tight, and the animations are playful without being gimmicky. And the interviews? Gold. Everyone from organizers to locals to random alien enthusiasts offers some piece of the story that feels essential.

One of the strongest points is how the documentary feels like the internet itself. Fast, messy, and layered with irony and sincerity at the same time. It knows when to laugh and when to highlight how quickly a meme can spiral into real-world consequences.

---

The aftermath no one expected

In the end, no one actually stormed Area 51. There were no aliens. No arrests. But there were two competing festivals, thousands of confused visitors, a lot of press coverage, and a strange, lingering sense that something almost happened. Something huge. Maybe dangerous. Definitely absurd.

Trainwreck: Storm Area 51 is more than just a chronicle of internet chaos. It’s a time capsule of when humor, desperation, and digital culture collided under a desert sky. Whether you’re here for the memes or the mayhem, this documentary delivers.

The military lost money, a small town gained weird notoriety, and Matt Roberts became the accidental face of one of the most viral non-events in recent history. The documentary doesn’t paint him as a villain or a hero, just a guy caught in the gravitational pull of his own joke.

Rating with a touch of flair: 5 out of 5 glow-in-the-dark alien masks.